Frankenmuth

The 2023-24 fiscal year was a year of learning and transition. Through it all we continued to follow our diverse marketing plan to drive visitors to Michigan's Little Bavaria through print, digital, social, billboards, and other platforms. Fall of 2023 started off with a strong Christmas campaign made up of social, digital, and even a Countdown to Christmas billboard! This momentum carried into winter and spring with a push to visit our waterpark properties. In the early spring we adjusted some of our campaigns with Epsilon and Two Six Digital to attract hockey fans in Canada and surrounding areas to the 2024 Memorial Cup. As summer and festival season picked up, we encouraged visitors to "Plan, Play, and Party" in Frankenmuth through an interactive digital campaign with Epsilon. Throughout the year our social media presence remained strong with our campaigns through Two Six Digital. We continued the momentum with print advertisements this year through ads in publications such as Grand Rapids Magazine, Compass Ohio, and Midwest Living to name a few. With the grant we were awarded a grant through the Michigan Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau, a portion of the funds were used to install six wayfinding kiosks to align with the DDA's bigger plan to help visitors explore more and assist with congestion from high traffic areas. These kiosks include maps of Frankenmuth as well as other promotional marketing materials related to our tours, future festivals and events, and things to do including places to eat, shop, and explore. Our partnership with Pure Michigan continued to stay strong as we participated in their Facebook Event Response ads and Meta Carousel ad opportunities for summer and fall. In addition to advertising in their seasonal publications such as the Pure Michigan Fall/Winter Travel Guide, Spring/Summer Travel Guide, and Family Travel Guide. We even received a handful of content creators through FINN Partners, which is the media agency for Pure Michigan. In addition to the content creators we hosted, we have also had two media groups showcase Frankenmuth on their show. At the end of May, we had a film crew in town to film an episode for the Atlas Obscura series called Small Town, Big Story. A few months later in September, we hosted a crew from the PBS show, John McGivern's Main Streets, that filmed an episode on the history of Frankenmuth. While it continues to be a priority of ours to remain a leader in marketing within the community and tourism industry, we look forward to new opportunities that arise during this next fiscal year! Advertising Publicity A N D 7

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